1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a control method therefor, and a computer-readable medium and, more particularly, to an image forming apparatus including a function of automatically ordering an exchange part.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various consumables and exchange parts used in an image forming apparatus such as a printer or copying machine are conventionally exchanged as part of maintenance when a serviceman or the like visits the user regularly or upon receiving a report from him/her. Note that the various consumables indicate a toner bottle, a toner cartridge, and the like, and the exchange parts indicate a dram unit, a feed roller, and the like.
To further reduce the down time of the image forming apparatus in the future, however, it is desirable that the user can readily perform maintenance operations without depending on operations by the serviceman.
To meet the needs, an image forming system has been considered in which an image forming apparatus determines, if the remaining amount of a consumable is small or an exchange part consumed level is high, that it will be necessary to exchange the consumable or part soon, and automatically orders it. The system is characterized in that an order is sent before a conventional life-time warning in consideration of the number of dates necessary for delivery and the like.
On the other hand, in the image forming apparatus, a rubber part of the feed roller, which contacts a paper sheet, wears due to the use of it over a long period, and thus a feed failure occurs, thereby causing a paper jam. To solve this problem, for example, a technique described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-32081 been proposed. In this conventional technique, a feed speed when a paper sheet is sent out from a feed cassette is detected. If the detected speed becomes lower than a preset value, the priority level of the feed cassette for being selected as a feed source is changed.
In the above-described automatic order system, ordering the feed roller indicates that deterioration of the feed roller has occurred at this time. If a paper sheet is repeatedly fed in this state, a device malfunction such as a paper jam due to a feed failure may often occur.
To avoid this problem, the technique described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-32081 is applicable. In this technique, however, the consumed level of the feed roller is determined by successively detecting a feed speed, a protection operation of changing the priority level works in a next feed operation.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above technical background, and provides an image forming apparatus for automatically ordering a feed roller to avoid, at an early timing as compared with the conventional technique, a situation in which a deteriorating feed roller is frequently used to cause a device malfunction such as a paper jam to often occur.